Sunday, April 22, 2012

04/22/2012
There seems to be something terribly wrong with the policy tack Noynoy
is taking on the territorial dispute with China, in that instead of the
conflict calming down to a level where negotiations are possible, the
situation is headed to a critical boiling point.

It is the
President’s call on what moves the government will take amid the
conflict which is an age-old dispute and not necessarily a source of
concern, if handled intelligently and professionally.

The country
also has territorial issues with neighbors other than China but it seems
that Noynoy has made it among his obsessions that encompass his
perceived political enemies, domestic and abroad, to take a hardline
stance against China..... MORE

04/22/2012
Noynoy and his foreign office, along with his defense and military
chiefs, are at pains to portray themselves before the Filipinos at
least, that they will not take the bullying of China sitting down.

The
trouble is, Noynoy and his boys are no different from the mouse that
roared but that ended up being swallowed by the huge lion.

The
Noynoy administration certainly knows it is no match for China even in
that claimed stand-off. The truth is, the Philippines blinked some time
ago during the first few days of the stand-off when, after sending its
antiquated American warship that gave the Philippines the early edge in
that the Philippine soldiers were able to get into the Chinese fishing
boats with their illegal marine catch, blinked by quickly pulling out of
Scarborough Shoal, with the lame excuse of its having to return to port
to refuel..... MORE

The latest resolution on Syria, unanimously passed in the Security
Council, may finally put things “on the right track” in the troubled
country, Russia’s envoy to the UN exclusively told RT.

­RT:The Security Council has just agreed to
boost the number of observers. Do you think this time around the mission
will be a success?

Vitaly Churkin: We
certainly hope so. In fact we are very pleased with the outcome of
today’s vote, which happened less than two hours ago. It was Russia who
took the initiative in introducing the draft yesterday morning. And it
took us just 26 hours to bring it to fruition, to the unanimous vote of
the Security Council on a rather complex resolution, both politically
and technically, no mean feat by Security Council standards, let me tell
you..... MORE

04/22/2012
It is indeed ironic that during his oath-taking at the Luneta as
President of the Republic, President BS Aquino said “You are my boss,”
but at the Power Summit in Davao he told his audience, “you pay more or
else there will be more blackouts in Mindanao.” This means that Mr. BS
Aquino is after all not the servant of the people which he initially
wanted to portray, but he is the boss and dictator as he dictates on the
people of Mindanao what to do, instead of doing what the people had
requested him to do which is to solve the power crisis that has gripped
Mindanao.

The Power Summit which was held in Davao recently which
was supposed to find solution to the power crisis in Mindanao, turned
out a to be a big disappointment to the disgust of the attendees and
stakeholders who expected a solution to the recurring blackouts lasting
eight to 10 hours daily in Mindanao.

No less that the President
was there to preside and this has provided hope to the people because
the highest official was attending the summit and would provide an
answer to the nagging question of how to solve the lack of electricity
in their area..... MORE

04/22/2012
Poets do exaggerate. But poets need not overreact when poems “as
lovely as a tree” are being “earth balled.” Obviously, the issue of SM
City Baguio’s environmental “sin” has been stretched beyond poetic
justice to overkill, leading to blatant injustice and unfairness to the
SM conglomerate.

The environmental “messiahs,” ill-equipped with
misinformation rushed too early to the streets carrying banners
depicting SM as environmental fiends? Amid chants of, “we cut it all for
you” and “greedy” in full media spreadsheets and screens.

The
ranting caused misplaced bias and “rushed” judgments leading to the
court issuance of a temporary environmental protection order (Tepo).
Then surprisingly, there is the Catholic diocese of Baguio joining the
fray by suspending the Eucharistic celebrations held regularly in the
mall lobby as if SM is some sort of an ecclesiastical entity being
slapped with church canonical sanctions..... MORE

04/22/2012
Which is what? Is it climate change that causes Earth change? Is it
Earth change that affects climate change? Or is one simply giving rise
to the other? Or are they in fact one and the same composite natural
phenomenon?

This issue is not really unlike the interesting — and
allegedly — profound century old question: Which is first, the hen or
the egg? Round and round the answers go. If the chicken is first, then
where is the egg it came from? If the egg is first, then where is the
chicken that laid it?

The matter of climate change has been long
since hogging the attention of people the world over. Foreign and local
media continuously bring to focus either the great wonder of or the big
fear about the changing climate all over the globe. Initiated by a known
and familiar political figure in North America, he said that the
ongoing change in the climate has been the origin of the large and
significant movements of the soil — especially in the form of frequent
strong earthquakes — not to mention the frequent deluge of water that
causes frequent and destructive floods which in turn annihilates rice
fields, roads, bridges and so on..... MORE

As
Malacañang maintained yesterday that the government has been consistent
with its position of not adding any more tension in its standoff with
China over the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, a newspaper of
China’s People Liberation Army (PLA) warned military exercises being
held between Philippines and United States forces “have fanned risks of
armed confrontation over the disputed area.”

Presidential deputy
spokesman Abigail Valte, nevertheless, stressed that the Aquino
administration had done its commitment to “de-escalate tension” in the
area.

Valte issued the statement after the Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFA) tagged as an “aggravation” a move by China to send a large
patrol vessel to Panatag Shoal last Friday..... MORE

04/22/2012
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP) called President Aquino a
liar as the leftist group bared the true intention of Balikatan, the
joint military exercises between the US military and the Armed Forces of
the Philippines.

Citing pictures taken by Reuters showing the
exercises geared towards US involvement in local counter-guerrilla
operations in the Philippines, the CPP said the President and his
military leaders concealed the real objective of Balikatan.

“Clearly,
Aquino and his military spokesmen are lying when they claim that the
Balikatan exercises are only meant to boost the external defense
capabilities of the Philippines,” said the CPP..... MORE

04/22/2012
Four new species of freshwater crab, bright purple in colour, have
been discovered in the biologically diverse Philippines, by a team led
by Hendrik Freitag, of Germany’s Senckenberg Museum of Zoology.

The tiny crustaceans were found in streams in remote areas of the Palawan island group.

“They
are semi-aquatic and hide in burrows at the stream bank, which are
usually found under boulders and roots,” Freitag said in a paper
published in the latest edition of the National University of
Singapore’s Raffles Bulletin of Zoology.

“Their eggs hatch directly into juvenile crabs and the creatures emerge at night to forage under water,” Freitag added..... MORE

A
lawmaker has proposed a one-year prescription for a person missing due
to extraordinary forces of nature under the New Civil Code on the
declaration of presumptive death needed for estate settlements.

“This
bill seeks to help the victims to settle their successional rights over
the estate of their departed loved ones who were declared casualties of
a natural calamity without the unnecessary delay in the settlement of
their estate,” said Kasangga Rep. Teodorico Haresco, author of House
Bill 6015.

The bill seeks to amend Section 2, Article 391 of the New Civil Code on the Declaration on Presumptive Death..... MORE

04/22/2012
“Boy Bayong,” the EcoWaste Coalition’s favorite mascot for ecological
and sustainable lifestyle, will stage a comeback amid the clamor for
solutions to the plastic garbage crisis.

As part of the Earth Day
2012 festival at the Cultural Center of the Philippines today, April 22,
“Boy Bayong” will greet and inspire the public to “think out of the
plastic bag” and embrace eco-alternatives to the ubiquitous symbol of
our throw-away culture: plastic bags.

“The fragile state of our
environment requires a key revision to our inconsiderate consumption and
disposal habits that tend to view Mother Earth as a boundless source of
raw materials to be extracted and consumed and as a dumping ground for
leftover toxics and wastes,” said Roy Alvarez, president of EcoWaste
Coalition..... MORE

04/22/2012
Describing the penalty for robbing a national library and national
museum as outdated, a solon is proposing the imposition of higher
penalty for those convicted of stealing a property belonging to the two
government institutions.

Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Jay Velasco,
author of House Bill 5774, justified his proposed measure, saying the
accompanying fine is outdated considering the fact that the artifacts in
a museum are priceless.

Under Article 311 of the Revised Penal
Code (RPC), the penalty for stealing properties from the national
library and national museum is arresto mayor and a fine of not more than
P500..... MORE